Judith Collins is distancing herself from comments she made last year that Pike River Mine was an “inferno” and a “terrible mess” following four explosions in November 2010.

She was Police Minister at the time of the disaster, and discussed the state of the mine with Paul Henry during a National Party leadership bid on Dec 7 2016.

“I was then Minister of Police. I know about the infernos that were there and I know what happened. And I can tell you, it’s just a terrible mess,” she said.

Her comment was along the same lines as what other ministers and officials have always said about the state of the mine’s interior – that an inferno ripped through the mine and reduced everything to dust.

But that image is in stark contrast to footage revealed by Newshub last night from inside the deepest part of the mine, which shows no sign of an inferno.

…so she lied and now doesn’t;t was to get exposed lying.

This latest Pike River Mine lie joins older lies like the claim family had seen all the footage when they hadn’t and that the footage showed rescue staff far further inside the mine than had been acknowledged…

The first thing is I’m here to give you absolute reassurance, we’re committed to getting the boys out, and nothing’s going to change that. So – when people try and tell you we’re not, they’re playing, I hate to say it, but they’re playing with your emotions.

The truth is that we have collectively allowed Unions to be weakened to a shadow of their former selves and workplace safety is now a privatised cost to avoid rather than a public obligation to shoulder.

This Government have lied, lied and lied again about what happened at Pike River, it is time this madness ended.

About the author

20 Comments

‘ This Government have lied, lied and lied again about what happened at Pike River, it is time this madness ended.’

Indeed they have. And it wont stop there , either.

There are powerful New Zealand and foreign mining interests who , right up until present , hold the licence to mine our resources.

A past CEO of Solid Energy ( yes- the same Solid Energy that is being used to stall reentry at Pike River ) … stated at a Govt meeting that ”New Zealand’s Iron Sands were worth between 1 Trillion and 5 Trillion dollars ” , and that ” we could with out water resources produce high quality steel far cheaper than the Chinese” …

PIKE RIVER WAS to have been incorporated along with other NZ coal mines into the production of that ‘ high quality steel ‘ production by extracting ‘ high quality coking coal locally’ …

The problem is of course, that much of our coal and other mineral resources is present on land designated as National Parks. This has been known about for decades by our geologists and politicians. And that open cast mining would – and did , – become out of the question when it was formally put to the public vote.

Thus creating a constant obstacle to the vast potential mineral extraction from various private lobby groups and their political advocates.

You will recall right back in the beginning when John Key became elected , – both Key and Gerry Brownlee championed the cause for mining mineral resources in our National Parks. This also included the vast Iron Sand resources found primarily on both the North and South Islands.

A smelting industry was being put forward to be based around the Kawhia /Raglan district.

However, underground coal mining ( and underground mines in general ) are far more expensive operations to run , and far more risk to workers , with any disasters being seen as a risk for mine management. Hence, the Pike River mine at the Brunner seam ( which has always been a dangerous mine due to the presence of large amounts of methane) could only obtain a licence to operate if it was underground, and to be less invasive – have only one exit/ entrance.

Such was the ruthless avarice of these mining corporations that they pushed ahead regardless of the inherent risk factors involved to human life, proceeded with operating a mine with only one entrance , – and not only that , – were consistently tardy in enforcing safety standards due to costs, coupled with general negligence and a belligerent attitude towards Trade Unions and workers protestations of unsafe working conditions.

As an example of the sort of foreign interests who had interests in the Pike River mine, – there is the corporation that owned the Upper Big Branch coal mine. A coal mine which , itself , – had suffered a similar (coal dust , not gas explosion as at Pike River ) – explosion several months before Pike River that ALSO lost 29 miners and having just 2 survivors.

………………………………………….

An interesting clip on that disaster and the legal inquiry held is here :

( It is interesting how that inquiry went ahead but here in NZ , there seems to be this all permeating culture of arse covering among officialdom )

The Pike River coal mine disaster is a legal and political liability and embarrassment in the case for further political agitation to enable the mining of our natural resources in our environmentally sensitive National Park areas. Not only that , – but it graphically represents the true face of exploitative free market capitalism in this country and the extent to which ‘ neo liberalism’ has deliberately and consistently undermined the New Zealand Trade Union Movement.

THIS IS WHY we have consistently seen lies, denials, withholding of film evidence, subverting our justice system , ( in the case of Peter Whittalls Insurance company paying out 3.4 million dollars in compensation to victims family’s and WORKSAFE NZ accepting so that Whittall would not have to stand trial ) media blackouts, officials closing ranks and denying world eminent Coal Mines Search and Rescue experts who say reentry IS POSSIBLE in favor of the Government and Solid Energy’s ‘ experts ‘ who have deliberately stonewalled every step of the way for the last 6 years.

So as we can quite plainly see – there is MUCH riding on keeping all forensic evidence from ever seeing the light of day and out into the full public view of what really transpired at Pike River for some very , very powerful political and corporate interests .

And all power to Peters, – however hes an older bloke now, and even if he was present at the mouth of the drift to endorse the teams finally going in , I would be happy at the stand he has taken on the family’s behalf.

Good on him.

And good on Andrew Little as well for his standing with the Pike River family’s.

These are the sort of people we need to see in the new coming government this September election. Decent human beings.

And goodbye to the lying criminal element we have all had enough of with the current one.

The National party are not human. They are just like the Liar Liar Maybot, only way worse.

Remember when Robert Hewitt survived 3 days out at sea, Helen Clark kept the rescue efforts going, even after it was feared he was dead.

The Natz just decided the miners were dead and seemed to be pushing not to bother to rescue.

“I was then Minister of Police. I know about the infernos that were there and I know what happened. And I can tell you, it’s just a terrible mess,Look at Judith Collins…”

Only there was not inferno in seems, just a lot of lies spread by government to stop the rescue going ahead. Apparently you can have a ‘word’ to the Natz as a corporation and all your problems about 29 dead workers just go away…

Yes both at fault but the Party in power, National are the only one’s who can enact legislation to enter the mine and they my friend have lied profusely throughout the past 6 and a half years. Hardly surprising Key resigned. And the atrocities of this, were rewarded with a knighthood!!!!

It is a shame that the rescue personnel were not allowed into the mine immediately after the explosion as it would have been the safest time, the methane having been burn’t up, and there were volunteers. The rescue workers at the Grenfell Tower inferno seem to have been allowed more latitude for personal responsibility.

I’ve always maintained that the reason the government has no interest in recovering the bodies at Pike River is because they KNOW it is a crime scene and thus subject to forensic analysis. Given that there is a chance, however slight, they made the wrong call to not allow people into the mine (then and now), they will keep the charade of “it’s not safe to go in” going into perpetuity (because the alternative is that they may be implicated in manslaughter).

I’ve always maintained that the reason the government has no interest in recovering the bodies at Pike River is because they KNOW it is a crime scene and thus subject to forensic analysis. Given that there is a chance, however slight, they made the wrong call to not allow people into the mine (then and now), they will keep the charade of “it’s not safe to go in” going into perpetuity (because the alternative is that they may be implicated in manslaughter).